Skip to main content
Bread

Telegram Conservation Cook Book

A yeast bread made from milk or water, sugar, salt, yeast, fat if used, and sifted flour, mixed by the short or straight dough process.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chapel, Inie Gage, Mrs. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 31 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Telegram Conservation Cook Book

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquid

  1. Boil the water or scald the milk.

  2. Put the sugar and salt (and fat if used) into a mixing bowl.

  3. Pour the hot liquid over it and allow it to become lukewarm.

  4. Mix the yeast with a little of the lukewarm liquid.

  5. Add the yeast mixture to the rest of the liquid.

Make the dough

  1. If convenient, set this aside in a warm place, not over 86 degrees Fahrenheit, for one hour.

  2. If not convenient to set it aside, add the flour at once, a little at a time.

  3. Knead until the dough sticks to neither the bowl nor the hands; this requires about 10 minutes.

  4. Cover and allow to rise for an hour and three-quarters at a temperature of 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

  5. Cut down the dough from the sides of the bowl.

  6. Grease the hands slightly and knead the dough a little.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into loaves, place in pans, and set aside to rise again for one hour, or until a light touch will make a dent.

  2. Bake for 50 minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

814Calories
25 gProtein
9 gFat
157 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chapel, Inie Gage, Mrs. [from old catalog]. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk
Provides liquid and sugars that feed the yeast and help the crumb brown.
Yeast
Ferments sugars to produce carbon dioxide, which makes the dough rise.
Flour
Forms gluten when kneaded, giving the dough its structure and elasticity.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the crust.
Salt
Controls yeast activity and strengthens the gluten structure.

The step that matters

Keep the rising temperature at or below 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Yeast works fastest in warmth, but temperatures much above this range can overheat it and slow fermentation, leading to poor rise and a dense loaf.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, sugar):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Beetrootfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Potato BreadPotato Bread124 recipesCornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipes